Back Home, Rangers Seem Lost

L.A. Kings Take 3-0 Lead in N.H.L. Finals

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A Turn for the Worse at Home

A Turn for the Worse at Home

CreditJason Szenes for The New York Times

The Rangers played their first home game in the Stanley Cup finals in two decades, but the magic of 1994 did not fill Madison Square Garden on Monday night. Mark Messier sent encouraging words before the game, but there was no Messier on the ice, no Mike Richter in the nets, no Brian Leetch bursting down the ice on a rush.

Flat and futile, these Rangers lost to the Los Angeles Kings, 3-0, and plummeted into a three-games-to-none series abyss. The Kings can lift the old silver trophy for the second time in three years on Wednesday at the Garden by winning Game 4. Only four teams have rallied from a 0-3 deficit to win a playoff series. The Kings did it this year in a first-round encounter with the San Jose Sharks.

“I’m trying to stay positive now, but it’s tough — it sure is tough,” Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist said, recalling two goals that bounced into the net off teammates. “At some point you’re going to have some puck luck, and we don’t have any right now. Feels like they have all of it.”

The fans were expectant of victory at the start of what Coach Alain Vigneault called the biggest hockey game in New York in 20 years. The Rangers had played the heavily favored Kings to a virtual standoff in the first two games in Los Angeles, losing both — one in overtime and the other in double overtime.

But on Monday, the devastating blow came early, on a goal from Jeff Carter with 0.8 of a second on the clock before the end of the first period. The Rangers were crestfallen. The Garden fell deathly silent.

Video

Video Notebook: Rangers Lose Game 3

Brad Richards talks about the Rangers’ 3-0 loss to the Kings at Madison Square Garden and what it means for the rest of the Stanly Cup finals.

The Rangers’ power play failed to connect on six tries and is now 0-14 in the series. The team moved the puck well on its manpower advantages, taking 10 shots. Over all, the Rangers outshot the Kings by 32-15. But they could not solve Jonathan Quick, a former playoff most valuable player from Milford, Conn., who was playing his first game at the Garden.

“Nope,” Quick said when he was asked if he could smell a Stanley Cup after recording his second shutout of these playoffs, and the first by a visiting goalie at the Garden since Gerry Cheevers of the Bruins in 1972.

Vigneault called Quick “obviously the best player on the ice tonight.”

Quick, who grew up a Rangers fan idolizing Richter, robbed Derick Brassard with the paddle of his stick and made several stout saves on stuff tries in the crease by Benoit Pouliot, Rick Nash and a few other Rangers.

“You’re just trying to make one save at a time,” Quick said. “The team played great in front of me and cleared out a lot of rebounds that I left in front.”

The Kings played a classic road game, blocking shooting lanes, limiting chances, counterattacking rarely but effectively. But Quick and the Kings were helped by the Rangers’ inability to finish their rushes.

Photo

Credit
Bob Eckstein

Nash had an open net on a wraparound in the second period, only to have the puck dribble off the end of his stick. Mats Zuccarello found himself alone with the puck in the crease in the first period, but he slammed the puck off the near goal post, and it skittered away harmlessly.

The first period was even, and the crowd was alive when Carter delivered a crushing blow.

The play started when Justin Williams lugged the puck over the Rangers’ line. With Nash pushing him to the outside in pursuit, defenseman John Moore moved to the outside to cover Williams, and that left Carter open in the middle.

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Williams slipped the puck to Carter, who glided unimpeded to the top of the face-off circle, where he snapped off a wrist shot. The puck struck the skate of a sprawling Dan Girardi and flew in over Lundqvist’s shoulder.

“I’m just laying down, and the puck got passed over and it just nicks off the heel of my blade, and that’s exactly how the series is going for us right now, a couple bad bounces,” Girardi said in a frustrated stream of consciousness.

The Rangers and the fans checked the goal light behind Lundqvist — would it flash red for a goal or green for the period’s end? It flashed red.

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Kings goalie Jonathan Quick (32) stopping a shot by the Rangers’ Mats Zuccarello during the first period. Quick, a former playoff most valuable player, stopped all 32 shots by the Rangers.Credit
Jason Szenes for The New York Times

It was the first time in the series the Kings had a lead during a game.

At 4 minutes 17 seconds of the second period, the Kings made the score 2-0 while Marc Staal was off serving a high-sticking penalty. Jake Muzzin’s shot deflected off Martin St. Louis past Lundqvist — another bad bounce for a Kings goal, one of several in the series.

Mike Richards gave the Kings a 3-0 lead at 17:14 when he tried to pass on a two-on-one break. Defenseman Ryan McDonagh blocked the pass, but the puck went right back to Richards, who fired it home.

That was the puck luck Lundqvist spoke of. After trying so hard to get to the Cup finals throughout his career, the great Swedish goalie is watching his chance slip away.

He snapped at a questioner for the first time anyone could remember when the horde of reporters closed in and someone asked him, “What happened?”

“We’re working hard, doing a lot of good things,” he said. “But when they score goals like that, where it feels like we’re right there and doing the right things, it’s hard, mentally challenging, to try to overcome.

He added: “I could sit here and say we’re playing really well, but in the end it’s about finding ways to win. And we haven’t done that. I’m just extremely disappointed that we’re in this hole.”

A version of this article appears in print on June 10, 2014, on Page B10 of the New York edition with the headline: Back Home, Rangers Seem Lost. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe